2016-04-26

Liver Fibrosis: Avoiding and preventing the worsening of liver inflammation is the key!

Liver fibrosis is a condition that occurs in many chronic liver diseases. It is usually caused by long term inflammation and damage to liver cells. Some of the common causes of liver inflammation are: Chronic hepatitis B/C, fatty liver disease, alcohol abuse, drug toxicity liver damage, etc. Liver fibrosis can be classified into five different levels, denoted as: F0, F1, F2, F3 and F4. F0 means that the liver cells are normal with no fibrotic tissues; a higher number indicates a higher level of fibrosis of the liver, with F4 representing cirrhosis. [1]

In Western medicine, liver fibrosis is a consequence of long-term damage to liver cells, it is thought to be a passive and irreversible process. At present, there is no medicine that can directly treat liver fibrosis or cirrhosis. Also, as the fibrotic tissues and damaged liver cells are usually distributed throughout the liver, it is not possible to remove the affected parts of the liver by surgery.

Due to the lack of treatment options, doctors generally recommend patients to improve their lifestyle, or to treat the cause (e.g. chronic hepatitis, fatty liver, NASH) of liver fibrosis, in hopes of slowing down the progression and the worsening of the condition. [2]

If liver fibrosis is developed, chronic liver disease patients should be very alert and think twice about treatments they receive, as during the treatment process, the drugs may further damage liver cells and affect liver function due to the toxicity of the drug itself. Therefore, patients with chronic liver disease should focus mainly on stopping inflammation in the liver (by lowering ALT level) and preventing fibrosis. This is the only way to reduce the complications of treatment.

It is important that patients understand that drug treatments can sometimes cause further damage to liver cells, and that they should not take excessive medications; rather they should choose an appropriate and safe means of prevention or treatment.

Reference:

Disclaimer:

* All research and clinical data should be used as reference purposes only, results may vary.

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